Ghani hints at downsizing in MoE after bad show

KABUL (Pajhwok): President Ashraf Ghani has said some major steps, including downsizing, are needed in the Ministry of Education to improve management, quality of work and education.

Currently, the MoE employs 60 percent of the country’s entire civil servants but remains hard hit by corruption and resultant low quality of education in the country.

“We need to take some major steps to improve the MoE,” the president was quoted as saying in a statement from the Presidential Place.

“And the target is to improve the quality of education. For this purpose, there is need to work on different models to improve the quality of education,” said Ghani.

He added the current structure of MoE was not affordable to go with and there was need for more specification of duties and responsibilities, asking for the help of Central Statistic Organization (CSO) and the Telecommunication and Technology Ministry’s help to identify the exact number of teachers and available resources.

Councils created under the Citizens Covenant Program could also help the MoE in its reforms process, the president said.

Showing disappointment over the MoE performance, the president said: “Despite a massive number of employees, the MoE is still unable to proper administer its affairs and needs downsizing to ensure proper management,” he said.

He said the MoE should work on education system from grade first to 12th and technical, vocational institutes and teacher training centres should be administered by a separate authority.

Mohammad Ibrahim Shinwari, deputy head of general education, explained programs and strategies of the education ministry to the president and briefed him about immanent reforms at the ministry.